Poisonous
by Avis Howl
Summary: Dreams are terrible things. They show our deepest desires and subconscious thoughts. Or do they?
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: **I own nothing but the plot.

**A/N: **Hi there. I know I have said that I won't be publishing any TVD fiction anymore but I must say I am surprised to be publishing this as well as any of you might be. The idea came to me in a dream (yes, those continue to be my greatest inspiration :D).  
>I don't know whether to leave it as a one shot or do I make a short story out of it. I'll leave that up to you. If the reception will be good then I guess I'll take it as a sign to continue. Otherwise I won't.<p>

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and supporting my work by doing so. Let me know what you think in the reviews section and enjoy your stay.

* * *

><p><em>Elena was walking down an unknown street. She couldn't for the love of her remember how she'd gotten here but it must've been quite late in the evening already since the streetlights were dimly glowing upon the sidewalk with their signature orange colour. <em>

_It wasn't cold but she pulled her jacket closer around herself anyway, feeling slightly uneasy, walking around unknown territory alone. And at night at that. _

_In front of her, the road soon widened, showing more houses and cars. She felt some of the tension leave her shoulders but then her legs turned her figure left, away from the populated area._

_Even though, the road she chose was without any streetlight whatsoever and suddenly turning uphill, Elena somehow knew that it will lead her to where she wanted to go. _

_She became a bit short-winded from the effort she was putting in finally reaching her goal, when she heard clamour from behind her. It sounded like someone was rummaging through trashcans and was clumsy enough to knock one down in the process, so it rolled around, leaving a trail of metal, clashing with asphalt, noise linger in the silence of the night. _

_She suspiciously turned around, only now realising that she had passed the last of the houses on this lone road and was now heading to the part of it which had woods on the right side._

_She saw nothing, even though the moon was shining quite brightly. _

_Without thinking too much of it, she resumed walking but again, the sound interrupted her and she turned once more._

_A deep, sinking feeling nestled itself inside her stomach, making her super aware of her surroundings. A few twigs snapped in the woods and she could hear an owl, softly hooting somewhere. _

_She narrowed her eyes into slits in order to see better through the dark and find the source of the ruckus. Her breath, still a bit ragged, seemed very loud to her ears so she tried to suppress it. _

_The trashcans caught her attention for the third time and now they were accompanied with short barking.  
>At least six or seven animals was pulling around plastic bags and other things they could find amidst garbage, probably looking for something to fill up their empty stomach. <em>

_Rogue dogs, Elena thought, let out a breath she was holding and started walking again. The thought of mere dogs didn't seem so frightening to her. She had seen them before and if one yelled a bit loudly, they would scatter away, afraid for their lives. _

_But nevertheless, the sinking feeling of dread stayed with her and was growing until she observed that the dogs were now following her. They were watching her with deep interest, apparently waiting for her to do something other than simply walk. _

_She took out her phone, with full intention on calling either Rick or someone else to come and pick her up, when she noticed that her phone battery had died. She subconsciously took up the pace of her strides, which must've been a clear sign of her fear to the dogs as they started running around her, playfully. They didn't seem to want to hurt her at all but Elena still found something extremely sinister and macabre to their behaviour. _

_Finally, after a good five minutes of rushed walk, the road aligned again and there was a small clearing on the left, with something that looked like an old barn in the middle of it. Light was seeping through the upper storey of the rickety looking building and Elena happily marched towards it. She thought she could ask to borrow a phone or simply stay with them until the night was over. _

_The dogs, however, didn't cease following her. Their playful attitude had now turned slightly resentful as she paid them no mind and they started to become a bit more aggressive. One of them nibbled at her ankle and she jumped away, letting out a small shriek. _

_The animals slowly took a few steps back and lowered their bodies to the ground. Elena knew, that the minute she'll turn her back to them, they'll jump forward so she dared not do that. _

_She spotted the latter, leading upstairs and began closing the distance between herself and the barn with caution, her eyes never leaving the dogs in front of her. _

_Suddenly she turned and ran with all her might and speed towards the latter, hearing the dogs do the same. She grabbed onto it and hauled herself up three steps at the time, just to escape. _

_She fell backwards on a pile of dusty straw, making the inhabitants laugh and snicker._

_She turned and shocked came to realise that the spacious place was actually some sort of a bar. And she knew all the people attending. There were Caroline and Bonnie in one corner, playing pool with Klaus and Stefan. Jeremy and Rick were busy with a drinking game by the bar and Damon was sitting with Rebekah and Andie. _

_Elena also noticed Matt, serving some of the locals of the Mystic Falls she only knew by face and a whole group of girls and boys that went to school with her. _

_Everything was so strange and maddening that she needed a minute to compose herself but nobody seemed to care, that she was sitting on the floor, apparently distraught and a bit lost. _

_She tried to call Caroline but she either wouldn't or couldn't hear her. Her attempts at making her presence know, however, were abruptly stopped when the hatch, through which she just came, opened with a crash and through came those same wretched dogs that were so persistently following her earlier. _

_Elena jumped and yelled but again, nobody seemed to hear her. The dogs now had bloody eyes and extremely long canine teeth, crawling towards her with the sole intention to kill. They did not look like werewolves but rather like vampires, dressed as dogs. _

_This time she screamed at the top of her lungs for Damon. He lifted the glass in his hands to his lips and looked right through her, shaking his head, as if he was telling her that he will not come to her aid. Not this time. _

_Tears burned in her chocolate eyes, her lower lip trembling as she tried to process all of the hurt and anger on his handsome face, before he broke the eye contact and went back to amusing women, sitting on each side of him. _

_She was alone. _

_Right after the thought entered her mind, the scenery changed._

_Elena looked around herself, thoroughly confused at the sudden switch. There was absolutely no sign of the vile looking animals anywhere anymore. Instead, she found herself sitting on the spot, previously occupied by Damon. On her left side was Andie and on the right Rebekah. Everyone still appeared to have a pretty good time only now they weren't ignoring her. _

_She searched the place for Damon and found him at the bar, lounging around with Stefan and Klaus. And as if they felt her eyes on them, the three of them turned and looked at her, whispering among each other. Damon grinned at something Stefan said to his ear and moved towards her. _

_The general buzz of the place quieted down, the anticipation thick in the air. _

"_Go on, Damon," said Stefan, his voice dripping with mockery. _

_In an instant, Damon's eyes turned red, the skin on his face darkening into a very unhealthy grey colour while his teeth grew. Elena, realising what was about to happen, dropped to her knees, stretching her arms wide in front of her, towards Damon. This time the tears in her eyes weren't left unshed. She forgot all about the trainings she had with Rick. How to fight off a vampire was a mystery to her._

"_Damon, please! This isn't you." she begged, touching his shoulders as he too, kneeled down to level his height with her own. _

"_You would never hurt me! Please!" _

_The dark man in front of her looked unaffected by her pleas, unaffected by the gentle touch of her hands on his cheeks and neck. With every second, his bared teeth were coming closer and closer to her neck. _

"_That's right Damon, that's the real you! Tore her neck apart!" Goaded the sharp voice of Klaus and Elena, wailing, crushed her smaller body into Damon's bigger one, hugging him tightly, caressing his scalp and whispering: "Come back to me, please! This is not who you are!" _

_She felt his calm and composed breath on her neck right before the sharp pain invaded..._

Elena's upper body shot upwards in her bed, the hands frantically searched for her neck and any wounds she might have. Her palms found nothing but the thick sheen of sweat, covering every inch of her being. The pace of her breathing was unusually fast and she was shaking.

She checked the clock on her nightstand and upon discovering that it was time to get up, rose to her feet and sheepishly walked into the bathroom, where she splashed her face with cool water before checking her image in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and it seemed as if she had cried not only in her dreams but in real too.

Quick at going about her normal morning routine of getting ready, she entered kitchen and found Rick, standing by the sink, clad in his pyjama pants and an ordinary t-shirt.

"Morning, Rick," she said, a bit bitterly. Alaric, who apparently was not expecting her to be up this early in the morning, turned around, startled.

"Elena? Is everything alright?"

His fatherly tone was somehow welcome today as she opened the fridge, took out a jug of orange juice and poured some in the glass on the counter.

"I had a terrible dream."

"Yeah, those seem to find their way into our minds at times as these quite frequently," he sadly murmured, more to himself than to Elena but she had heard him anyway.

"Did you have one too?"

"Jenna." Was all he said before pushing himself away from the counters and sinking into one of the chairs. She followed his example and sat across from him, nervously picking at her nails.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"No, not really but I know it'll do me good if I share it with someone. Besides, I wanted to take a run and I am sure I'll enjoy it more with a clear head."

Alaric smiled, leaned back in the chair and listened to her narration. She made sure she didn't let anything out because she knew it'll only be burdening her more. And she was right. After she told him all, she felt considerably better. But also considerably more self conscious. Alaric had been studying her face very closely now and she somehow felt completely naked under his scrutinizing gaze.

"Are you finally going to tell me how you feel about him?" he pressed.

"About who?"

"Elena," his voice seemed worn off now. Like he has had it with the constant avoiding of the mentioned subject.

"I don't want to discuss it. At all. I'm going for a run now."

She was out of the door before Rick could even open his mouth. The last thing she wanted right now, was to dissect her thoughts on Damon Salvatore and with Rick, none the less. She couldn't even dissect them on her own let alone with someone who had an on/off bromance with the said vampire.

Besides, greater things were at stake than her trouble of not knowing how she should feel towards...

She better just stop right there, before she gets lost again.

After a good hour of running she found herself in a very close proximity to the boarding house. Noticing, that coming any closer would have been a futile attempt at trying to keep her thoughts at bay, she turned around and now leisurely walked back, taking the same path she took before.

A patch of reddish looking flowers was growing by the trunk of a tree and Elena came closer. She wasn't really a girl that liked flowers or even paid them any attention but the shape of the flushes was so unique. The flower was one of the ordinary ones. She had seen it in many pictures before but she couldn't remember how it was called.

She was just about to touch one of the dozen bell-like shaped flushes, when a male voice behind her interrupted her actions.

"I wouldn't touch those if I were you. That's foxglove and it's poisonous." he drawled.

"Oh, you mean, like you are?" she spat back, standing up and defiantly staring into the depths of his beautiful eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own it (except the plot that is).

**A/N:** I dedicate this chapter to Jamie (Draco-Harry-Lover-1), for saying the simplest of thing that actually made me write this second chapter to this little ficlet. I know it gets a bit sappy (and we'll probably never get a scene like that for real) and I must admit that I do not know how come it turned that way but I somehow found myself to like it nevertheless.

I hope I made a decent attempt at it but as always that's for you to decide. So, read and reaview and thus let me know what you think.

* * *

><p>"Oh. You know, there's this silly thing called 'getting over it'. How about you try to accomplish that, huh?"<p>

Elena didn't really know what she had wanted to hear from Damon but it certainly wasn't what he just said. She felt like she just entered some odious parallel universe, where Damon really stopped caring about her and went back to being his old, less than charming self. Although, if she was to be entirely frank with herself, even that attitude held a certain level of amiability to it. Not that she'd ever voice it but nevertheless.

She somehow snapped back to reality, glaring daggers at the man, still standing in front of her as casually and unaffected as possible. She really was trying very hard not to feel the ugly green monster inside of her but his self satisfactory smile somehow managed to be especially infuriating today; or maybe it was just the lack of tolerance on her behalf that made it seem so.

She shut her eyes closed, took a deep breath to calm down the rage, boiling in her veins and restrained herself from half spitting a very carefully selected insult, waiting on the tip of her tongue.

But Damon, never being accused of having much tact, nailed the last nail into his own coffin; so to speak, by opening his mouth again. Which, according to anyone who ever had the pleasure, no, misfortune of meeting him, never stayed shut when they ought to have.

"Cat got your tongue? Pity. And there I was, looking forward to one of your sermons on morality and other, equally boring stuff that I really have no special interest in." He snickered and that just about did it for Elena's durability of nerves to snap like a dry twig.

Her hand whooshed through the air and collided with his cold yet impeccable skin. She knew he had the ability to stop her, to grab her wrist rather painfully and warn her with the stern look in his eyes but she also knew that even if he did see and feel it coming, it was his choice not to prevent her from doing so.

"Right, well I won't say that I didn't thoroughly deserve that. But then again, that would be moral of me, wouldn't it. Oh, by the way, nice smack you developed there, I was nearly impressed. Emphasis on nearly, of course." He mocked, stroking his cheek in a manly way before turning around and walking back towards the boarding house with ease in his step.

"You selfish prick!" Elena yelled after his retreating form, her arms crossed over her chest, nostrils flaring with anger.

"Excuse me?" He half turned his upper body back to face her, placing his right hand behind his ear as if he hadn't heard correctly.

"You heard me alright!" She reiterated, quite forcefully.

"Yeah, that's the problem here. Me, hearing it correctly. You see," He now decided to stroll back into her personal space, clearly eager to clear some things out:"I don't think that you have the right to call me selfish at all! You see, the selfish one here is you and no matter how much I hate special titles being taken away from me, it's true and you can deny it all you want but it still won't make any difference."

It was now his turn to be angry and he didn't bother hiding it away from her one little bit. His eyes held a certain frosty colour in them; daring her to defy him or, God forbid, even strike him again. He was right and she knew it; or if she didn't she then must've been a master manipulator of her own brain because it was so apparent already that it was biting her in the bum.

"I am not selfish!" She then pompously declared, still bravely staring into his eyes.

"Really? What gives you the right to be angry at me for sleeping with Rebekah? What gives you the right to judge me in anything when all I was doing these past months was trying to keep you alive and out of danger? Trying to preserve this town and all of your friends. What gives you the right to have a say in my personal life when I decide to have a bit of a leave from the global crisis here? It's not like we're a couple!"

If Elena was trying to find proper words to throw them back into his face when he started his little rant she was now, as he had ended it so abruptly, speechless. Her mouth was clamped shut and she seemed to be having troubles breathing properly. Her chest was heaving heavily while his eyes danced over her face. He was still sporting a very dark and serious expression, clearly indicating that he was somehow closing himself away. Maybe for good.

A good deal of time must've passed while neither of them spoke. Birds were chirping and fluttering around. Passing cars were heard from the distant road. Even the nearby stream seemed to be more alive with sounds than the couple, strangely facing each other in silence.

Finally Elena dropped her gaze, defeated in her own game. She shifted from one foot to another and nervously wiggled her hands. His posture was still unwaveringly stoic, blocking the view of the boarding house.

Suddenly she realised how close to her he was actually standing. There couldn't have been more than five or six inches of air between them and even that was heavily electrified, bouncing from their bodies. She hadn't noticed it before but he was not wearing his leather jacket today, which was indicating that he must've spotted her from the house, not bothering to properly dress. The top three buttons of his midnight blue shirt were undone, as usually, showing the perfectly sculptured collar bones, covered in his fair skin.

A bit of a flashback hit her, when she remembered how he, quite some time ago, showed her how to get to a vampire's heart.

Slowly, she opened her mouth:"I know. I am sorry. We're not a couple. We're friends and I want us to stay like that."

Now Damon moved too. But to her surprise, he stepped away and plastered a genuine smile upon his handsome face. Gently rubbing her right forearm, his eyes softening at last.

But then another surprise came as her stomach twisted into a knot. He seemed relieved to have cleared things between then and it somehow didn't bode well with her. She seemed to have two split sides to her. One, desperately wanting to uphold this mask of friendship being enough to her and a bit more dangerous one that wanted her to run to his arms and apologize.

"So?" She cautiously stepped forward, into his personals space:"Are we friends? Is everything okay?"

"I think we might have spent too much time in each other's company and that we need a break." He sighed, still smiling yet terribly unconvincingly this time.

"What? Why?"

Her voice was so delightfully lost and mellow that forced Damon pull all of the self control strings very tightly to himself lest he attacked her in a way that she probably didn't want to be attacked. Or at least not by him, he sadly thought.

"I just told you why. It'll do us good." He softly responded, tracing his thumb over her cheek ever so slightly.

"But you're all I have truly left."

"Elena..." He tried to warn her off but to no avail.

She pressed her delicate, feminine palms on the either side of his neck, rubbing tiny little circles just under his ears. She stared into his eyes with those molten chocolate with an emotion he could hardly place. And just when he wanted to pull away for the sake of his own sanity, she lowered her gaze onto his lips.

Seconds ticked away like hours when she slowly and timidly closed the distance between the two of them. Something exploded in her head when her lips touched Damon's. Her heart leaped in her throat and her knees would have gave up on her had he not carefully put one of his arms around her, pressing her flush against his chest, craving the vicinity.

For the first time Elena opened her mouth and left him with an open invitation. His tongue joined hers in a steady, rhythmical movement making stars dance in front of her closed eyelids and millions of butterflies leave their cocoons in her stomach.

The symphony of feelings and desire was drowning her in Damon's scent even long after he broke the kiss and put her palms on his chest, right over where his heart should've been beating.

"It might not be alive anymore but it sure feels like it is when you're around."


End file.
